Game for Windows Live is the "community layer" of Steam + DRM + ultra crappy interface. Technically the only thing you need is a "Microsoft Live" account. Most of the time you can just set it up once and forget about it though…sometimes it can be a pain in the *** (aka keep popping up).

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Here we go again with the GFWL hate again. I never had a problem with it. Its like beating a dead horse at this point.

Sadly, you are confusing this expression. Beating a dead horse is when you bring a subject up over and over when it is resolved or no longer relevant. I REALLY wish GFWL was a dead horse, i.e. not used anymore. Since Dark Souls has chosen to use GFWL, which I shall dub the Pale Horse, we must continue to expose it for what it is, a plague upon gaming.

Anyway, what GFWL games have you played? GTAIV, Bulletstorm, Batman: AA, they all gave me trouble, particularly because GFWL has about 20 different versions that each game uses, unlike Steam, which is one codebase.

Whether you view me as a hater or not, there are legions of us who say GFWL is no sale.

Never had a problem with GFWL, you register and you sign in (if you want to) and play.. It sucks with all the different clients though, but at least GFWL doesnt run in the background like Steam and many other, taking up resources and introducing possible conflicts or bugs in the OS or with other applications.

Originally Posted by vurt
Never had a problem with GFWL, you register and you sign in (if you want to) and play.. It sucks with all the different clients though, but at least GFWL doesnt run in the background like Steam and many other, taking up resources and introducing possible conflicts or bugs in the OS or with other applications.

Is this true? I thought you have to log in into the marketplace before running a GFWL game - so there is something running in the background!

GFWL is terrible, as simple as that. I have always had problems with this system and multi-player is the least of them.
My latest problem with this disgusting system was my account being hacked. I logged in to my account and noticed that I have received FIFA achievements while playing Xbox360! Moreover, I have bought some in-game items within FIFA, up to the point of spending all my money!!! Now guess what, I don't have an X360 and I have never played FIFA and I have never bought any in-game items in FIFA.
When I Googled for a similar problem, I noticed this is a very famous hack which has happened for a huge number of Live users (including but not limited to GFWL users). The hackers used FIFA to buy ingame items and steal money. Many people have been affected by this hack, but Microsoft simply claims that their's nothing wrong with their security and this was the users' fault! They say we (the people who were hacked) gave away our passwords on forums! Now after having used computers for 25 years, I know how to protect my password and I know when a company is trying to be clever by putting the blame on me.
GFWL is terrible, even by lowest of the standards.

Originally Posted by vurt
Never had a problem with GFWL, you register and you sign in (if you want to) and play.. It sucks with all the different clients though, but at least GFWL doesnt run in the background like Steam and many other, taking up resources and introducing possible conflicts or bugs in the OS or with other applications.

The "if you want to" isn't valid anymore (or it depends on the client version?). I had to create a "Live" account to play Batman Arkham Asylum last year. I couldn't play "offline" like I did in other GFWL games.

I have over 100 games on steam and have never had a problem. I have 3 gfwl games and have add 3 problems.it's taken multiple tries to activate every game. To me that's a problem. The sad thing is I don't even know what it does because i've never used it. Unless re-entering my password every other time I play even though It should remember it counts as using it.

Originally Posted by SpoonFULL
Is this true? I thought you have to log in into the marketplace before running a GFWL game - so there is something running in the background!

It doesnt run at windows startup like Steam, taking up resources no matter if you've decided to use Steam or not that particular day. Couldnt care less if it runs in the background while actually playing, that's a whole different thing.

But yeah, i just remembered i actually had one problem with GFWL, it was quite slow when i tried to connect to it to download a patch (GTA IV), that's the only problem i can think of.. With the 2 Batman games i never had a problem that i can can recall.